WOODLAND, Calif. – Robert Ramming palmed a Bambino watermelon on his organic farm, plunged his pocketknife into it and handed out slices dripping with juice.
“This is called field research!” said his wife, Debbie, slurping the flesh.
Robert had picked right: This little melon was ready for market.
Fifteen years ago, seedless watermelons were a relative novelty, and 5-pound “mini” versions like the Bambino didn’t even exist.
Since then, though, the summer staple has undergone an extraordinary transformation.
Marketers discovered people would buy more watermelons if the melons were seed-free and a lot smaller, despite seeded melons often seeming sweeter.
“There are so many undiscovered traits,” said Xingping Zhang, the head watermelon breeder at Syngenta, pointing out a baseball-sized melon growing on a vine that snakes up one of the hundreds of twine ropes hanging from the ceiling of a greenhouse.
In the past several years, new techniques have allowed plant breeders to better focus their hunt for desirable traits without using controversial genetic engineering.
In the future, Zhang expects to create melons with flesh that is at once juicy and firm. He would like to make bright red melons even redder, a sign they carry an abundance of lycopene, an antioxidant that may help prevent damage in the body’s cells.
Ramming grows a handful of heirloom variety watermelons. But he makes his money on the small, seedless and sweet varieties released in the last few years.
The seedless melon has come to dominate the U.S. market, with 83 percent of sales in 2006. Sixty percent of U.S. consumers prefer seedless watermelon, while 18 percent favor the seeds and 22 percent don’t care, according to a 2006 survey.
Support for seeded melon is strongest in southern states, where they were favored by 28 percent of respondents. It’s weakest in California, where just 12 percent preferred seeds.
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